Monday, December 26, 2011

Full of Grace & Power

Stephen, Deacon and Martyr Acts 6:8-7:2a, 51-60 (NRSV)
Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the
people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it
was called), Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and others of those from Cilicia and Asia,
stood up and argued with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and
the Spirit with which he spoke. Then they secretly instigated some men to say,
"We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God." They stirred
up the people as well as the elders and the scribes; then they suddenly
confronted him, seized him, and brought him before the council. They set up
false witnesses who said, "This man never stops saying things against this holy
place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will
destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses handed on to us." And
all who sat in the council looked intently at him, and they saw that his face
was like the face of an angel.

Then the high priest asked him, "Are
these things so?" And Stephen replied:

"You stiff necked people,
uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just
as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not
persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and
now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the ones that received
the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it."

When they
heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen. But
filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and
Jesus standing at the right hand of God. "Look," he said, "I see the heavens
opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!" But they covered
their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they
dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their
coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he
prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he knelt down and cried out in a
loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he
died.